An integrated circuit may contain an extended drain metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) transistor which operates at a drain voltage significantly above a maximum gate voltage for the transistor. For example, an extended drain transistor may operate at a drain voltage of 20 volts and have a maximum gate voltage of 3.3 volts. The extended drain transistor may include a drain drift region between a drain contact active area and the gate; the drain drift region may deplete when drain bias is applied to the drain contact active area so as to reduce an electric field across a gate dielectric layer under the gate. Forming the drain drift region to provide desired values of drain operating voltage, breakdown voltage when the transistor is turned off, also referred to as BVDSS, breakdown voltage when the transistor is turned on, also referred to as BVDII, and area of the transistor, may require tradeoffs which undesirably increase a fabrication cost or complexity of the integrated circuit or decrease performance of the integrated circuit.